eMinutes Client Profile: Alex Wang
Please tell our readers about your business. At Carapace Wetsuits we make handcrafted, custom-fit wetsuits from high quality materials, and we’re using technology to make it affordable and available to the masses.
Tell us about the project you’re currently working on. We’re currently working on our Kickstarter project. Kickstarter is essentially a crowdfunding platform that allows entrepreneurs, artists, and other innovators to post their ideas online. The public then has the ability to contribute any amount to that cause and once the creator hits their “funding goal” they will, in theory, have enough capital to start their project. In projects on Kickstarter, you have a reward. This can be anything from early access to the product, t-shirts, and even speaking roles for movie projects. People get pretty creative here and it’s really fun to see. The purpose of this for us is to raise capital, to finish R&D, satisfy material purchase minimums and go into full force production through Kickstarter. Other equally important reasons are: validating the business model, gaining exposure and meeting partners and even investors.
Why did you become an entrepreneur? Is starting a business something you always wanted to do? Yep, I think it was just in my blood. My grandpa started a canned fish factory back in the day in China. My father started an import/export business when he moved here, my older brother runs a web/technology agency, and my twin is working at a technology startup. They tell you to look back at your childhood to remember what you were like/what you loved doing and that might clue you in on what you’ll be happy doing now. This was the case for me. As a kid, I sold everything door to door: chicken sandwiches, music CD’s, belt buckles, everything. I loved strategizing and building these little empires. Even after college, I did commercial real estate, which is as close as you can get to starting a business without actually starting one. I wanted to be an entrepreneur because I love the idea of building something from nothing. I’m really inspired by “underdog” stories of entrepreneurs that are able to grow, compete and sometimes outdo the big guys. I love the excitement, the pressure, hitting small milestones in our business, and feeling like you have impact on the business and maybe even on the world. I can go on and on. I can’t imagine doing anything else right now.
What is the number one thing you wish you could learn more about, and how will you learn about it? I wish I knew more about hiring, managing and enabling people to leverage what they do best. I’m new to this and I think this is one of the most important facets of any business. I find myself thinking about this more than marketing, finance, operations or any other part of the business. I believe in the school of hard knocks but also pairing real life experience with what you read. I’ve read Delivering Happiness, 4-Hour Workweek, Good to Great, and many more. I’m currently looking for my next read.
How has technology impacted your business? Technology is HUGE for our business. It’s how we can compete. Our industry, like many others, is dominated by large public companies. Although powerful, they aren’t as nimble as we are, we can adopt technology, take risks and innovate faster.
How do you use social media in your business? Social is so huge for us. I’m still figuring this out but it’s been instrumental in helping us get the word out. Since we launched our Kickstarter campaign, we have had dozens of people share our story on Facebook, resulting in over 20,000 views. And we really haven’t spent much capital on it. That’s what is so cool, you can get your message out now very economically. It’s just about figuring out what outlets are best for you, because there are SO many platforms out there now.
Did you have a business plan when you started your business, and, if so, how much did you vary from it? Yep. I actually wrote one just for eMinutes! This was awesome because it forced us to think about some possible fallacies in our business. But the business plan has changed a lot from when we first wrote it. I didn’t know that we were going to use the technology that we are using now. We were going to offer custom colors (which is actually in the works again). And, I didn’t plan for it to be this hard. The foundation has always been the same though—to build a handcrafted, custom product, make it affordable and deliver it to the masses.
What was your biggest mistake and what did you learn from it? One that stands out is when I bought about $800 worth of materials online that turned out to be the wrong stuff. I learned that I need to pick up the phone once in a while, especially if it’s an international vendor. My dad actually always tells me this but I guess the $800 was a more powerful lesson. I’m all about technology but there are some things that still need to be done the old fashion way. There are appropriate conversations to have over text, email, phone and in-person and our generation needs to better understand which medium to use to communicate.
What advice would you offer to a first-time entrepreneur? Get a sharp co-founder that complements your skillset and have the tough conversations early. By the tough conversations I mean, concerns in personality, work ethic, equity, responsibilities. Spell it out and talk about it early. Connect with other successful entrepreneurs, but don’t “network”. You naturally get along with some people better than others, just accept that. Don’t fake it. It’s annoying to be “networked”. Have genuine interest in other people. CEO’s and business leaders can sniff out phoniness better than anyone else on earth. Stay strong. There will be some pretty crappy nights, working at the office alone till midnight. Don’t forget why you chose to become an entrepreneur and get a co-founder with heart. A buddy of mine put it best a few nights ago “misery loves company.” Feel free to reach out to me if you are a first time entrepreneur. I’d be more than happy to chat. alex@carpacewetsuits.com
Have you received funding from an outside source, and how has funding (or the lack of funding) impacted your ability to achieve your objectives? Everything has been bootstrapped so far and I think this was the best way to go if possible. When it’s your hard earned money, you spend it very carefully, which is how it should be in the beginning and actually all the way through. We’ve been able to accomplish a lot with a little and I wouldn’t have it any other way. With that said, within the recent week or so, I’ve realized that maybe our business could be bigger than I had thought it would be. I think there might be some value in bringing in a strategic investor in the near future. By strategic, I mean someone that can really add value outside of just providing capital.
How do you spend your workday? In the mornings, I like to categorize my to–do list. So I have a few “categories” like Carapace, Personal, Real Estate, etc. For each category I just write high to low priority tasks— I try to be specific. I like to write on a notepad too, there’s something about this that lets you connect with what you need to do better than if you were to just type it. I “X” out everything that is done and anything that isn’t done is transferred onto the next day. I like to see a lot of “X”s. Because I’m involved with so many things, I don’t ever have two workdays that are the same. As a general rule of thumb, mornings and afternoons are reserved for interacting with people locally as well as East coast and then nights are reserved for emailing / using Skype with my international vendors. Nights and weekends, I reserve for “cranking” things out, like if I have to do a lot of writing.
Who do you rely upon in your business most, and what does he or she do for you that is so invaluable? Definitely my partner Andy Park. He brings a very different things to the table. He’s a much better surfer than I am and has been immersed in the culture for over a decade, so he understands the consumer mentality a lot better than I do. I bring more of a business and operational background to our business. He’s been my sounding board and really keeps me grounded when @%^$$! hits the fan.
Do you believe that “luck” played any role in the success of your company? I wouldn’t call it success yet but I’m working on it! I guess it depends on how broadly you want to define luck. But luck is a huge component. I’m lucky to have a supportive family that believes in this crazy idea, lucky to have the friends that I do, lucky to have a mentor like Mark, lucky that certain connections were made. A lot of things worked in our favor but at the same time a lot of things didn’t, so I think it averages out. I think working our brains out played a bigger role than anything else.
If you had an extra $25,000 to spend on your business, what would you spend it on? Sorry this is not as exciting of an answer as you probably hoped (haha) but I would probably spend it on back-end and operational things. So it wouldn’t be marketing. I would make sure that the back-end on our site is completely clean without bugs, making sure machines, and the supply side is absolutely perfect. No matter what, we need to deliver a good product, on time and at a good price. The front end, marketing, branding, etc is secondary to that.
How neat or messy is your desk? My desk is usually neat and clean but probably not as organized as it should be. If that makes sense. Right now, it looks like someone lobbed a grenade into my cubicle because of the Kickstarter campaign but I’m hoping to get it cleaned up tomorrow, my mom is coming to visit.